Coins On A High Wire.

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Broad Question:

How can a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter walk across a wire with the help of a magnet?

Specific Question:

How can a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter walk across a wire with the help of a magnet?

Variables:

Independent Variable:

Penny, Nickel, Dime, Quarter, Magnet.

Dependent Variable:

Distance traveled(centimeters)

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

The distance the coin is allowed to go to before it stops.

Hypothesis:

I think that the penny will be the first on the wire, and then the dime will be second, the nickel will be third, and the quarter will be last.

Graph of Hypothesis:

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Experimental Design:

I will be conducting my experiment in my house, and in a few days, or weeks, depending on time.
There will be only one person, which is me. I will be working with coins and a magnet. I will be repeating this experiment at least two more times to see what data I have for the science fair. I will be recording my data on a piece of paper, then when I have finished, I will be putting it onto the spread sheet. I am going to be doing this at least two times, I will follow my own procedure and see if it works. I will have to be able to record all of the trials for each coin at least ten more times.
I will use each coin at least ten times to see how far it will go with the help of a single magnet. I plan to set up a single, straightened clothes hanger onto a wire that is tied to a solid object. I will have selected a single coin, and the magnet would be in my other hand, away from the coin. I will place the coin onto the left side, the side pointing the farthest into the air, and hold the magnet a few inches away from the hanger. I will bring my hand up the hanger slowly, the coin should be following it as I come up to the tip of the hanger, then I will bring my hand back down to the lowest point and take the coin off of the hanger, then pick another coin and do the same thing that I had just done with the first coin. I will repeat this with every coin about ten times and see how much data I have, if I don’t think that there is enough to make a conclusion, then I will use each coin at least two more times. When I think that I have enough data to make a conclusion, I will put it into the data spread sheet in Google docs.

Materials List:

• wire ( coat hanger straightened out)
• Wood ( any type as long as it’s flat)
• Plastic
• Magnet
• Metric ruler.

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Detailed Procedure:

1. Get all of your materials ready.
2. Pick up one of the coins, the penny first, and then pick up the magnet in the other hand.
3. Keep the magnet and the coin apart from each other and walk over to the wire.
4. Place the first coin on the wire, still keeping the magnet away from it still. Keep your now free hand on the coin.
5. Start by moving the magnet closer to the coin, then move away from it again, while keeping the magnet in line with the wire.
6. Record how long the coin traveled on the wire, then repeat steps three through step five with the penny nine more times.
7. Repeat this with each coin nine times.
8. record each of the times for each coin.

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Background Research:

The coins and minerals that are available to use for my experiment.
What is attracted to magnets?." What is attracted to magnets?. nd. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

The coins and minerals that are available to use for my experiment.

This website also shows me what types of metal are in coins, what kinds of coins that are attracted to a magnet, it also shows me what type of metal there are.

This website also shows me what types of metal are in coins, what kinds of coins that are attracted to a magnet, it also shows me what type of metal there are.

This website tells me what materials are attracted to the magnet and what isn’t attracted to it.

This website offers the types of coins that are attracted and unaffected by magnets. It will help to make my experiment much easier, if I didn’t find this, I would be testing each coin that I can think of.

References:

"Magnetism." Magnetism- Wikipedia, the free encylcpedia. Magnetism- Wikipedia, the free encylcpedia, Web. 19 Jan. 2012.
"The magical Magnetic Coins." The Magical Magnetic Cions. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.
"What is attracted to magnets?." What is attracted to magnets?. nd. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.
" What types of Metal are attracted to magnets?. What types of Metal are attracted to magnets?, Web. 19 Jan. 2012.

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Data Table

Graphs

Photos

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Data Analysis

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Discussion

My question for the science fair was to test if a coin (penny, nickel, dime, and quarter) could
travel or walk across a straightened metal coat hanger. I did this by bending a metal coat hanger until it was straight and even. I put the hook of the metal hanger onto a piece of string. Then I tied the other end of the string to a cylinder of wood to keep the hanger straight and motionless when I tested the coins. I used each coin ten times to see if the distance that each coin went changed every time. The metal hanger stayed in place while a magnet brought each coin up and down the length of the hanger itself.

Conclusion

The original purpose of this experiment was to see which coin, (penny, nickel, dime, and quarter), could walk across a high wire with the help of a magnet. I used each coin ten times, starting with the smallest (penny) to the largest (quarter). The results of this experiment were that the penny had the best average, which was 1160 cm. The second best average was the dime, which had an average of ninety- two point one cm. The third best average was the nickel, which had an average of seventy- three point two cm. The quarter, which had an average of twenty- five point three cm.